


To Mourn the Forgotten

by deantookmybiscuits



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, Hopeful Ending, Jedi, Mourning, No Beta We Die Like Clones, Order 66, Post-Order 66, Post-Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, Post-Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Sad, the galaxy has no forgotten, the jedi did good, unedited
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-06-27
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:22:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24947581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deantookmybiscuits/pseuds/deantookmybiscuits
Summary: The Jedi are dead, and the galaxy celebrates. (The Jedi are dead and people grieve.)
Comments: 15
Kudos: 233





	To Mourn the Forgotten

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SWModdy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SWModdy/gifts).



> Got sad, and wrote this. Inspired by swmoddy's similar post on tumblr https://swpromptsandasks.tumblr.com/tagged/JediPurge

Hondo Ohnaka is not an honourable man. Oh, he might like to play it up and pretend. It’s all about theatre in the end, but he knows that to succeed as a pirate he could not be honourable. So, no Hondo Ohnaka is not an honourable man, but nor is he evil or cruel. He has few morals, but the ones he has are strong.

So when the Empire rises and the Jedi fall, Hondo does not believe the lies the former Chancellor spews. The Jedi, traitors?

The Jedi are honourable. When they lie and cheat it is always for a greater purpose, of that Hondo is certain. No true Jedi Hondo has ever met has wanted power. The dark Jedi, the fallen ones, they want power. It is what stops them from being Jedi. Obi-Wan Kenobi is an honourable man. It is part of what fascinates Hondo, that this being of great power could give himself over so completely to others that he does not even know the power he wields. And the children… Hondo has never cared for people who killed children.

In the days after the Temple burns, Hondo watches as the galaxy celebrates a genocide and mourns. The galaxy has always had flaws, Hondo is one of them, but this is beyond even that. He makes a promise to himself then, as the Emperor makes his own grand promises, that he will mourn the Jedi. From Yoda (who Maz loved so) to Obi-Wan Kenobi (all fire and passion and an unending drive to better the world) to Katooni (small and kind and trusting) to the youngest babe slaughtered in that old temple. He keeps them all in his heart, works against the Empire and rarely steals from the Alliance.

Hondo Ohnaka is not an honourable man, but he is not a bad one either. And he knows that the Jedi, for all their flaws, lived with honour. 

¬

The Jedi Temple burns, and Dex does his best to keep his head down. For now. The time will come to fight back, but for now all he can do is mourn. 

He only ever visited the Jedi Temple once, but he knew many Jedi. Some, like Kenobi, are clearly still alive. Their faces are splayed on every surface on Coruscant, and no doubt around the galaxy. Someone has even taken the time to sprint flimsi wanted posters. Those who don’t have posters… their home is now their tomb and how Dex mourns.

He has known a great many Jedi, and does not for a second believe that they were traitors. One or two, perhaps, but all? The younglings killed in their beds? The old masters who don’t remember their padawans names? The Knights willing to die for the Republic? The padawan’s who used to study at these very tables? No, they were not traitors. The traitor now holds the highest office in the galaxy, and will destroy everything the Jedi sought to protect.

So Dex holds onto that knowledge, gathers information, and prays that wherever he is, young Kenobi knows that there are those who still care. That he isn’t alone, not truly. That the Jedi will be mourned.

¬

Bail Organa sees a Padawan cut down and vows to never forget. He holds a screaming baby, sees his friend's cold body and vows never to give up. He sees Obi-Wan Kenobi’s empty eyes, and vows to bring hope back to the galaxy.

People celebrate, cheering for the end of the war and the death of the Jedi. Bail Organa holds an orphan, one of four living people to know the truth of her parentage, and pretends to celebrate with them. At night, he curls up with his wife and mourns. For the death of democracy, for the Senate, for the Republic, but mostly for the Jedi. For the sentients who fought and died for them, who deserved better than to be shot down in their home by those who should’ve been their friends.

¬

When she was younger, Mon Mothma had been determined to change the galaxy. Now she watches democracy burn right alongside its staunchest defenders. In the end, what was this all worth? She dedicated her life to the betterment of society, and watched as her colleagues ripped it down for their own gain.

Mon Mothma never knew any Jedi personally, but she has watched them fight and die for the freedom of trillions across the galaxy. She remembers brown-robed figures negotiating peace between factions who have fought for centuries. She remembers groups of giggling younglings touring the Senate. The Hero With No Fear and The Negotiator giving exhausted testimony to an ungrateful crowd of Senators. Missions where her only protection was a single robed figure. An old temple, rising comfortingly above the tallest buildings on the city-planet, older than the Republic itself.

The Jedi did not deserve to die.

¬

All across the galaxy, there are people who mourn. As an Order burns and brothers fight and a Senator dies, people mourn. Quietly, so no one can see, but mourn they do. They remember Jedi dropping out of the sky. They remember copper hair and charming smiles as they saw sunlight again. Droids carved in half. Saviours and defenders and sentients. 

Men and women who stood steadfastly between a scared child and an approaching army. Those who fought for peace, who brushed off thanks and carried children through warzones.

Though those who survive flee, and so many are lost, there are people mourning.

¬

Luke Skywalker goes out wearing old Jedi tunics, lightsabre attached to his waist. On the far side of the cantina an old Weequay pirate smiles sadly to himself. Perhaps, after all this time, he can let go of the pain in his heart. A Jedi, in no danger for his identity.

Across the street, an old human woman drops her basket of fruit. A Jedi. Images of a twi'lek in similar attire deflecting blaster bolts flash through her mind. She smiles. Finally, the Jedi return.

A Rodian nearly crashes his speeder bike as the Jedi passes. Memories of battleships descending from above to rescue him and kind eyes race through his mind for the first time in years. Is it possible that some still live? That the Jedi can return to the galaxy? A long-forgotten part of him eases. Jedi, after all this time.

Luke is oblivious to it all. The galaxy has all but forgotten the Jedi, surely? He doesn’t notice the hope that his appearance gives tired sentients who still mourn.

**Author's Note:**

> Tell me what you think?


End file.
